Eliud Kipchoge, Princess of Asturias Award for Sports 2023

It was an expected award: it will be this 2023. Eliud Kipchoge, the best marathon runner in history, perhaps the best athlete ever, will receive his Princess of Asturias Award for Sports this October at the Campoamor Theater in Oviedo. At the age of 38, at the end of a splendid career, with two Olympic gold medals in the marathon, a world record in the mythical distance or a world gold medal in the 5,000 meters, the Kenyan will put his name on the list after the refugee Olympic team , awarded in the last edition.

“We value the figure of the athlete as a benchmark in world athletics and as the best marathon runner of all time.. Twice Olympic champion and holder of the world record of the test, Kipchoge is the only man in history who has managed to lose two hours in the 42.195 kilometers, a mark not officially recognized”, argued the jury for the tribute.. Along with Kipchoge's there were 23 other major candidacies, some international, such as Simone Biles, Roger Federer or Allyson Felix, and some national, such as Sandra Sánchez, Carolina Marín and Marc Márquez, but the marathon runner was the ideal option..

In the first place, because of his track record, endless and unfinished, as he still seeks to win the six major marathons -he only has Boston and New York left- and even a third Olympic gold at the Paris 2024 Games.. Secondly, for his social responsibility, dedicated to the promotion of an active life throughout the world and to the development of the area where he was born, the Nandi region, west of Eldoret, in Kenya.. And thirdly, due to the history of the Princess of Asturias Award for Sports.

outside look

Because despite some absence, like that of Usain Bolt, athletics has been the sport most marked by the award since its inception. In the year it was created, 1987, in fact, the winner was Sebastian Coe, today the president of World Athletics, and then came Sergey Bubka, Javier Sotomayor, Hassiba Boulmerka, Carl Lewis, the Spanish marathon team, Hicham El Guerrouj, Yelena Isinbayeva, Haile Gebrselassie and the New York Marathon. Interestingly, without Kip Keino or Paul Tergat on the list, Kipchoge will be the first Kenyan to be awarded.

With the election, the Princess of Asturias Award for Sports returns to its international exposure after several years focused on national sport. In recent times, the soccer and basketball teams -with Iker Casillas, Xavi Hernández and the Gasol brothers as repeaters-, José María Olazábal, Javier Gómez Noya, Carlos Sainz or Teresa Perales had modified the nature of the distinction that with the marathon return to its roots.

Together with Perales, current president of the jury, a good handful of athletes and former athletes decided on the Award: Theresa Zabell, secretary of the jury, Feliciano López, Samuel Sánchez, Abel Antón, Guadalupe Porras, Teresa Bernadas and Patricia García. As well as the director of the Brand, Juan Ignacio Gallardo, and the journalists Vicente Jiménez, Lluis Mascaró, Cristina Cubero, Julián Redondo, Joaquín Folch-Rusiñol and Gemma Castaño.